‘Star Wars’: 2nd Anthology Film An Origin Story About Boba Fett

Being Star Wars Day, today has brought forth plenty of new information regarding this December’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens – like, new character names and fresh images from J.J. Abrams’ highly-anticipated film. Of course, by now, many of you are aware that Disney isn’t just continuing the core saga with a new sequel trilogy. The studio is also producing standalone “anthology” movies to be released in between the new “episodes”.

Gareth Edwards’ Star Wars: Rogue One (about a band of Rebels stealing the Death Star plans) will come first, in Decenter 2016. However, the second of these projects has overshadowed the larger Star Wars universe over the past couple of days, as filmmaker Josh Trank departed the director’s chair (perhaps due to his behavior on the Fantastic Four set).

TheWrap has learned that the second Star Wars Anthology project will be an origin story for fan-favorite character Boba Fett. The Mandalorian made his big screen debut in The Empire Strikes Back and instantly became one of the franchise’s most iconic creations (despite his very limited screen time). One only has to recall the reaction to his untimely “death” in Return of the Jedi to see how beloved Boba Fett is.

Boba was also featured in the much-maligned Attack of the Clones as a youth (played by Daniel Logan) under the tutorship of his father, Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison) – of whom Boba was a clone. It is unknown at this juncture if Morrison (or even an older Logan) will be called upon to headline this movie, but considering that the prequel trilogy is official series canon, it’s a distinct possibility that one of those two actors might be involved in some capacity.

Regardless of which thespian fills out the suit (and/or provides the voice), it should not come as any surprise that this is a project Disney/Lucasfilm are interested in pursuing. For decades, Fett has been one of the series’ most marketable entities; due to his minuscule roles in the films thus far, there’s plenty to do with the character that we haven’t seen yet on the big screen. That opens up a multitude of routes for the director to go down when concocting the narrative, which will more than likely explore the galaxy’s seedy underbelly (given Fett’s history).

With this information in tow, fans will begin to discuss what they would like to see in a film centered on Boba Fett. The muddled Star Wars rumor mill has hinted in the past that the Hutts would have some kind of part to play in a standalone flick, while other reports suggested Boba and his old prey Han Solo would be featured in the same movie together. Those rumors may be all smoke and no fire, but it’s certainly plausible that Boba’s journey could involve slimy slugs and/or Corellian smugglers.

Obviously, priority number one is finding a new director – and since the film isn’t expected to hit theaters until 2018, there’s still plenty of time for that. For now, it’s just nice to know something more substantial about this particular project. It’s also exciting to know that a movie about the galactic crime world is in the pipeline, as Lucasfilm looks to blend genres with these upcoming space adventures.